Page 6 of The Defiance of a Scottish Heart
Taskill stood just inside the gates, his expression carefully blank. That expression—she knew it well. Had memorized every variation of it over the years. The slight tightening at the corners of his eyes. The way his jaw set just so. The absolute stillness that meant he was feeling everything and showing nothing.
She’d spent five years learning to read him from a distance, since he’d made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her up close.
“I’ve waited long enough,” her father continued, his voice carrying to every corner of the courtyard. Guards stopped their training. Servants paused in their tasks. Everyone was watching now. “She’s nine and ten now, and it’s time.”
Heat flooded Sheona’s face.She.As if she were livestock. As if she weren’t standing right here, hearing herself discussed like a problem to be solved. She picked up her axe and moved it from one hand to the other, anything to help her get past being made a spectacle at Clan MacVey.
Taskill’s gaze swept the courtyard and landed on her. For one heartbeat, their eyes met, and something flickered in his expression—pain? Regret? But it vanished so quickly she might have imagined it.
Then he looked away.
Always, he looked away.
The old wound in her chest—the one that had never quite healed—split open anew. Five years since that day on the shore. Five years since the day her mother had called her out of the water, scolding her for being too old for such games. Five years since Taskill had said nothing in her defense, had simply turned away and let her go.
She’d waited all evening for him to come find her, to tell her it was all right, that they’d figure out a way to stay friends even if they couldn’t swim together anymore.
He never came.
And the next day, when she’d sought him out, he’d looked through her as if she were made of glass. Transparent. Inconsequential.
Forgettable.
“Chief Rankin, I think there’s been some misunderstanding—” Taskill’s voice was steady, controlled.
“No misunderstanding. Your father and I agreed years ago.”
Sheona’s breath caught. Her father had arranged this? Years ago? While she’d been pining for a boy who could barely stand to look at her, there’d been some secret agreement hanging over her head?
Fury warred with humiliation in her chest.
“Dermot Rankin, stop acting like a fool and close your mouth!”
Rut MacVey’s voice rang out like a battle horn. Sheona had always admired Taskill’s mother—a woman who took shite from no one and made no apologies for it. The kind of woman Sheona’s own mother might have been, if she’d been allowed.
The argument erupted in earnest then. Rut marching forward like an avenging angel. Lennox emerging from the keep, his expression thunderous. Dermot shouting about promises and honor.
And through it all, Taskill stood silent. Passive. Letting others fight his battles while he remained carefully, deliberately neutral.
Just like at the coastline.
“She may be sweet, and she is beautiful, but she dresses like a man,” Rut said, gesturing at Dermot. “And I heard what you said. Douglas did not agree to have Taskill marry Sheona.”
The words hit like a slap.Dresses like a man.As if there were something wrong with her. As if she needed to change, to become someone more palatable.
Sheona’s hands curled into fists at her sides.
“I don’t think Sheona would agree to the match, Chief Rankin,” Taskill said, his voice infuriatingly calm. “With all due respect.”
Something inside her cracked.
He wouldn’t even look at her while he rejected her. Couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge her presence while discussing her future. Just stood there with that blank expression, as if the whole thing were a minor inconvenience instead of her entire life being debated in front of the whole clan.
Of course he wouldn’t agree to the match. Why would he? You’re not worth fighting for. You never were.
The thought was poison, but she’d carried it for five years. Ever since the day Taskill MacVey had looked at her—really looked at her—and decided she wasn’t worth the effort.
“She doesn’t need to agree!” her father roared. “I’ll choose her husband, and I choose you. Now get on your mount and follow me back to Rankin land.”
